1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that controls a print start temperature of a fixing section, a method of controlling the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus which performs image formation by heating and fixing a toner image formed by an electrophotographic method onto a recording medium, the fixing temperature of a fixing device is set to a predetermined temperature, and the amount of heat for fixing is set such that sufficient fixability is obtained even when a maximum amount of toner is applied to the recording medium.
Therefore, when printing of an image of an original, such as a text original, which requires application of a small amount of toner, is executed, it is necessary to warm up the fixing device to the predetermined fixing temperature in spite of the fact that the original image can be fixed at a lower temperature than the predetermined fixing temperature.
In such a case, the fixing device suffers from power loss and it is required to wait for a long time period before the fixing device is warmed up to the predetermined fixing temperature. To eliminate this inconvenience, there have been proposed various kinds of improvement.
For example, there has been proposed a technique in which before image data is generated from an original, it is determined in advance based on a print mode specified from outside whether the mode of image formation is a monochrome printing mode or a color printing mode (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-94698).
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-94698, a color image-forming system is disclosed which shortens the time period required to wait at the print start time by switching, before image data starts to be generated from an original, recording material conveyance control and fixing temperature control.
Further, an image forming apparatus has been proposed which decides, based on a description concerning designation of a color mode, one of a time when monochrome printing becomes executable and a time when color printing becomes executable, as a print start time (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-216320).
As described above, in the conventional technique, it is judged based on the contents of a print job whether printing to be executed is monochrome printing or color printing, and printing is started by switching operations of a printer for the fixing temperature control and the like.
However, even in monochrome printing, it is required to set a rather high fixing temperature so as to print a wide range of originals from text originals, printing of which requires application of small amounts of toner, to image originals, such as originals of graphics and photographs, printing of which requires application of large amounts of toner.
For this reason, when printing of text originals, which requires application of a small amount of toner, is to be executed, the conventional technique suffers from the problems of power loss at the fixing device and a long waiting time period before the fixing device is warmed up to the fixing temperature.